Does Web Development Grow Your Business?
Glad You Asked.

The pros make web development look easy. That’s why they’re pros, after all. But the truth is that a lot of work goes into getting your business ranked high on Google. Meanwhile, because experienced developers do make it all look so easy, there are a lot of business owners out there who think, “Why hire an agency? I can just have the office intern work something up. She’s internet savvy!”

It’s an easy mistake to make, especially since many people are still mentally mired in the web development concepts of the early 2000’s. And someone who has a small home business selling products on Etsy, and is happy staying that way, may do well enough with one of those simple DIY static designs.

But that’s not you.

You, your partners, your investors, your management, and your employees all depend on every aspect of your business running at the very top of its game. Client/customer perception and engagement makes or breaks your bottom line. And that’s why web development is critical to the success -often, even the survival- of today’s businesses.

It follows, then, that making sure the agency handling your business’s web development strategy is a seasoned pro with developers and strategists that are at the top of their game, too. But, how do you know if they are if your own understanding of web development needs some updating?

You don’t have to be an expert developer yourself.

But to find the best agency fit for your company, you should have a basic grasp on why web development today makes such an impact on a business’s success. To illustrate the 21st-century effects of web development on client/customer perception and business growth, let’s focus on 4 basic elements.

4 Essential Elements of Web Development

1. Images

Images have always been important in web development, even when it came to the simple WYSIWYG designs so popular during the transition of the 20th century into the 21st. Back then, any image with decent clarity worked just fine. Most consisted of simple photographs.

Today, however, image quality, clarity, and size play a crucial role in how clean and professional your website appears to your target audience. The role of an image isn’t just to draw a potential client or customer to your site. It should cause the visitor to linger, to explore, and entice the visitor to read the content that’s on your site.

The right image sends the right message.

Like it or not, visitors judge your website first by its images. Images heavily influence whether visitors will read the information that follows, decide to use your site’s contact page, leave contact information of their own, or click-through to buy your services or product.

Today, graphics also come into play. Original graphics summarize or illustrate the primary elements of any given way page or blog post. When relevant, both images and graphics should be used on each web page. Note that word “relevant.” Understanding the when, how, and if of placing graphics on a page is one of the nuances that sets great web development apart from the mediocre.

2. Video

The use of video in web development is another must-have. There are several ways that videos can be used to a business’s advantage. These include:

As a welcome to website visitors

As an introduction to your services or product

To present testimonials from satisfied customers or clients

As tutorials for products or services

To provide other information that is useful or interesting to visitors

As with images and graphics, the point of having relevant and engaging videos is to keep web visitors on your site, entice them to engage, and get them to act by requesting more information, clicking through to purchase, or leaving their contact information.

Video has particularly strong appeal to site visitors. It has become an essential tool of web development. Videos should include relevant captions and graphics and, of course, have excellent sharpness and clarity. The duration of videos is also important. Ideally, they’ll run between 1 and 3 minutes. Much depends on topic, but you risk losing visitor interest if you go too long. And when visitors loses interest, they aren’t very likely to return.

3. Analytics

Analytical tools are what web development pros use to help track how well a business’s website is hitting the mark with its target audience. Analytics monitor a wide range of important data, including:

How much traffic flows through the website

Which pages, articles, and other aspects of the site attract the most attention

How long visitors linger on any given page

How many visitors are “unique” (first time)

How many visitors are returning

Data on visitor behavior patterns according to age, interests, and more

Most experts in web development use a variety of advanced analytical tools. To date, Google Analytics remains at the pinnacle of these, but any agency of quality keeps its pulse on analytic tech, and keeps its clients well-informed.

4. Finessing Optimization Details

Website optimization is the process of improving a site’s capabilities to produce the desired business goals. It’s a bit of a catch-all phrase that puts much of the elements of web development into one basket. Optimization is a kaleidoscope that offers its most beautiful work when the sum of its parts are all functioning at their best.

Optimization is where the science and skill of web development meets artistry and experience. The best developers know how to control its many elements to get the best out of a site’s format, pages, and blog posts.

It’s rather like understanding what should go “above the fold” when producing a traditional newspaper.

For example, a lot of data has gone into understanding the way the human eye tracks a web page. And that data changes over time. Web development pros know how to use the data to ensure that the strongest and most inviting elements occupy the best real estate on the page.

Translating those website analytics mentioned above is another good example of why web development of any quality relies on expert optimization. Analytics is a fast moving target that must be doggedly monitored. The public’s attention span has always been a fickle thing. It has only become more so since the advent of the Internet.

Quality analytics not only make monitoring all this crucial information manageable, it helps turn it into a juggernaut of effective web development.

Summing It All Up

Of course, the four elements outlined above barely scratch the surface of web development. But having this basic understanding will help you know what to look for in an exceptional developer.

The single objective of web development is to help increase your business’s bottom line through a professional, high-functioning website. This happens through uncommon design, advanced analytics, hi-res images and videos, outstanding writing, and much more.

The old WYSIWYG one-size-fits-all model for a business website is extinct.

Today, a business’s site strongly impacts its revenue. That means handing your web development off to anyone on staff who has a little bit of know-how is like paying the chef of your favorite restaurant to perform heart surgery so you can reduce your co-pay. Likewise, the health of your business suffers without a skilled, professional web developer.

In this day and age of an evermore crowded competitive field, is there any wonder why web development is a must-have tool in your business kit?

About Streng Agency

Streng Agency is an integrative branding agency that excels in all aspects of brand marketing, from digital media to website design to marketing events and more. Our full attention is on delivering the best results for your business. We can do this and more because we take our expertise and work with group companies to achieve groundbreaking results.